


I'll walk through hell with you (The 5+1 Remix)

by verbaeghe



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-12 16:36:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10495062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verbaeghe/pseuds/verbaeghe
Summary: Five times that Jeff isn't sure he means enough to Richie and one time he doesn't have to wonder at all.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [protect_rosie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/protect_rosie/gifts).
  * Inspired by [i'll walk through hell with you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6269701) by [protect_rosie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/protect_rosie/pseuds/protect_rosie). 



> This is a work of fiction. Heck, it's fiction of fiction. If you share the name of one of the people listed, or know them, feel free to X out and save us all embarrassment. :)

On the Richards-Carter relationship one Flyer told me: Mike likes Jeff but Jeff loves Mike. Carter can't pack fast enough. #heroworship -[ @JohnBorukCSN ](https://twitter.com/JohnBorukCSN)

  


  1. Draft Day - June 21, 2003



Jeff goes 11th overall. It should be the most exciting day of his life, but his mind keeps wandering back to Richie and where _he_ will end up. 

He has a small lull between post-draft interviews when the Flyers second pick comes up, so he’s actually listening in when they get up there and announce that they’re taking Richie with the 24th pick.His heart gives a small leap of joy.

They’re going to get to stay together!

He’d never tell Richie, but he’s been so worried about losing him, his best friend, that he hardly registered the questions the reporters asked him earlier, but now? Now he feels like an entirely new person as he’s led to the next table. A person who is ready to answer any and all questions they have for him.

Especially the ones about Richie.

Hours pass before he finally gets to talk to Richie about it. _Really_ talk about it. It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen one another in passing while making the rounds, but it wasn’t a time to talk. He’s finally been released from his press rounds, though, so Jeff wanders the draft floor in an effort to seek out Richie.

He’s starting to wonder why Richie isn’t searching him out when, sucking in a deep, calming breath, he finally spots him a few hundred feet away talking to...ugh...Dustin Brown.

He’ll just have to deal.

So Jeff walks over to them, plastering on his smile, which he knows comes across as awkward at the best of times...but he figures it’s better than scowling, or whatever.

“Hey, guys!” is what he goes with upon arrival. The two of them look over at him like they’re expecting more, so he continues, “Exciting day, eh?” He sighs at himself. What the fuck was that?

“It was...something,” Dustin replies, giving him and Richie a look before adding, “Yeah, I’m going to go find my mom,” and disappearing into the crowd.

“I can’t believe that we got drafted to the same team,” Jeff reaches for Richie, pulling him into a bro-hug, happy when Richie squeezes him back, however briefly. “We’re going to be great together, I just know it!”

“Of course we will be,” Richie responds, but he’s already looking away, his attention caught by something - no, someone else.

Jeff watches Richie’s mom walk up and hug him, trying and failing to not let the dismissal bother him. He stands there a moment longer, then goes to find his own parents.  

  


  1. Richie is Named Captain - September 17, 2008



Jeff and Richie spend a good three hours of the night that Richie is named captain drinking themselves into almost oblivion. Jeff doesn’t even know where at least half of the drinks come from, but he doesn’t really care either, because he has a happy Richie draped all over him.

Jeff looks over at Richie, squints, really trying to take in the sight of him, and finds himself caught up in a hundred little details. The way Richie’s hair curls, his crinkling eyes when he throws his head back and laughs, the extra color high in the apples of his cheeks. It’s all more than Jeff should be asked to deal with when he’s had this much to drink.

“Hey, we should get out of here,” Richie slurs into his ear, and Jeff - he doesn’t need to be asked twice.

Richie is kissing him before he even has the cab door closed all the way.

Jeff has a hard time concentrating on paying when they arrive, because Richie won’t stop dragging his teeth against that _one spot_ at the back of Jeff’s jaw.

Jeff feels Richie’s hands all over him, everywhere as they trip down the hallway. Pushing off his shirt, reaching for his belt. Grasping at his ass. And then they’re naked and in his bed almost more quickly than he can process. They’re kissing and groping and grinding; not much time passes before they’re both coming with a groan.

Jeff isn’t totally sure what Richie does in the aftermath, but he can’t bring himself to do much more than roll over and pass out.

//

Jeff wakes up with a pounding head. And alone. The other side of the bed is completely cool. He wonders if Richie left right away.

He wonders if it’s his fault that Richie left. Should he have checked on him afterward? Or directed him to the shower. Or...something?

Jeff groans when his head gives a particularly violent throb. He pulls the blanket up over his head, curling into a fetal position.

It can wait until later.    

  


  1. Clean-out Day  - June 14, 2010



They’ve all had a few days to come to terms with the fact that they lost. Hell, that they didn’t even push it to a seventh game. They just lost - at home no less, and now they have to clean out their lockers and deal with media and Jeff isn’t sure if he is ready for it, but he’s pretty sure that the losers never really are.

Jeff reaches into his bag, pulls out his balled up socks. He lets them fall open and then he’s looking down at the game-winning goal puck from the other night. He’d seen the linesman place it down on the boards in front of the Blackhawks bench and grabbed it without thinking, hiding it away in his socks when no one was looking.

There’s been a big to-do about the puck since then. The Blackhawks are talking about it almost more than they are their parade, or anything else really. Jeff wonders if he should tell someone he has the thing or return it or-

Who is he kidding?

Jeff throws the puck into the nearest trashcan, dumping the empty water bottles from his station on top of it for good measure. “Good luck finding _that_ , assholes.”

He packs up in the uncomfortable silence then decides to go look for Richie, who he hasn’t seen at all since the elimination, which is saying something since they live together. He’s so busy concentrating on his phone as he’s heading out of the room that he doesn’t see Braydon Coburn until he’s bouncing off of him.

“Jeez, brick wall much?” Jeff asks, mostly to cover his embarrassment at the situation.

“Heh, sorry,” Coby replies, no amusement really bleeding through into his voice. He narrows his eyes, making Jeff feel like he’s being studied.“Where’s your other half?”

“That’s what I’m hoping to discover,” Jeff replies. He holds his phone up. “I was about to text him.”

Coby looks at him for so long without saying anything that Jeff starts to feel uncomfortable, unlocking his phone to finish the text. He’s just opening his mouth to excuse himself when Coby finally speaks in a quiet tone, “You know, I’m sort of envious.”

“Um?” Jeff blinks up at him. “Of what?”

“You know, what you two have. You’re so...meant for one another, you know? I’d like to find something, some _one_ like that,” Coby’s eyes are suddenly far away, his tone turns wistful. “Maybe someday, you know?” He shakes the sentiment away, his eyes clear. “Anyway, you need to find your boy and I have to do exit interviews.” Coby frowns a bit, obviously working himself up for the questions he’s about to endure. “Talk to you later, man.”

Jeff watches him walk away, wishing _he_ had the faith in the two of them that others seem to have.

He looks down at his phone and hits send.  

  
  


  1. Jeff and Richie are Traded - June 23, 2011



To say Jeff is blindsided by the trade would be an understatement. It’s the worst feeling in the world to be told that you’re suddenly somehow not worth anything to the team that you signed a Lifetime Contract with. And it isn’t just him who is worthless to them, but Richie as well.

To make matters worse Richie, who is off visiting his family in Kenora, isn’t picking up his phone. Great.

Jeff startles when his cell vibrates in his hand, sighing when he recognizes the number as Panaccio’s. He knows Panach is looking for some inane quote so he debates answering, if just to get it out of the way. He ultimately hits reject instead, sending him to voicemail, not ready to deal with it.

His phone goes off more times then he cares to count as he’s choosing to ignore it completely in favor of sitting on his balcony and looking out at the Atlantic. He spends a few hours pretending that nothing has happened, that he hasn’t been traded to fucking Columbus, of all the shitty places.

He goes back inside when the sun starts to set, thinking that maybe he should face his phone and hoping that there’s at least something from Richie by now.

It's completely filled up, both his texts and voicemail. He scrolls through, looking for Richie in any text or missed call, but it’s apparently complete radio silence from him, because of course it is.

It isn’t time to face his phone after all. He powers it off and drops it back onto the counter.

//

He still hasn’t heard directly from Richie by the time Rick Nash flies in a couple of days later to talk Jeff up on all things Columbus.

He’s starting to wonder if he will.

  


  1. Richie’s Contract is Terminated - June 29, 2015



“Are you fucking serious?” is how Jeff greets Richie when he walks into the house they share in LA. He holds up his phone, which has the news of the buyout glaring on the screen. “You didn’t even _say anything_ to me? I have to find out from _Twitter_?!”

Richie just looks at him, which is a whole other level of infuriating.

“Okay, so it isn’t bad enough that you got busted with something as stupid as someone else’s oxycodone when coming across the border and I got blindsided with questions about _that_ , but now I get surprised by this too?! What the _fuck_ is wrong with you?”

His breath is heaving from being so worked up and Richie is still just _sitting there looking at him_. He throws his hands up and turns away, heading towards the kitchen because the situation calls for a good, strong drink.

“You knew what you were getting into with me,” Richie finally says.

Jeff pauses just short of the doorway, turns back. “Of course. You first, everything else second.”

Jeff heads into the kitchen, putting space between them in an attempt to muffle Richie’s reply.

He’s free pouring Patrón into a glass when he hears the front door slam.

“Jesus Christ,” he mutters to himself, lifting the glass to his lips and downing the contents. His eyes water from the sharpness of the alcohol. “Just _once_ I’d like him to care about me first.”

  


      +1 Jeff and Richie Get Married  -  June 18th, 2017

“I always knew it would be you.”

They lean in at the same time, Jeff loves the sensation of Richie’s smile up against his lips when they meet in the middle. Everything around them seems to melt away as their kiss deepens. Jeff runs both hands into Richie’s thick hair, tangling his fingers into the curls, maybe messing it up a little more than necessary. Jeff tugs on the strands, attempting to pull Richie even closer, make the kiss even deeper, get lost in it even more.

“I’ve always needed you,” Richie mutters on Jeff’s lips. “Even when it didn’t seem like it, you being there for me has always meant the world to me.” He pulls back, breaking the kiss. The ambient noise of the wedding party is starting to bleed back in around them when he adds, “ _You_ have always meant the world to me.”

Jeff pulls Richie into a tight hug, tears of joy springing to his eyes. He buries his nose into the space behind Richie’s ear, whispers, “I love you so much.”

“I love you too,” Richie replies.

Jeff feels like the luckiest person alive.


End file.
